254
THE STOCK).
(Daily Press, October 12th.) The Hon. Mr. KESWICK, when addressing the Legislative Council on the subject of the Ordinance limiting punishment by stocks, made the mistaken suggestion that a local morning paper was "controlled" by Chinese and the imputation was allowed to lie where there is certainly no occasion for it. The Daily Press, speaking for ourselves, is certainly not "controlled" by Chinese or by anything other than a consistent desire to tell the truth and shame the Devil, and if we thought the stocks a barbarous method of punishing offenders, we would most certainly say so. As it happens, our views on the matter are like those held by the Hon. Mr. KESWICK- going, if anything, considerably further. But we also sympathise strongly with the respectable Chinese view, and are not in the least shocked by the Hon. Dr. Ho Kar's suggestion that the imposition of this form of punishment should be made more universal. The shibboleth of the prestige
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
rod.
For such we know an infallible cure. Put them in charge of a form of healthy boys, or in authority over a gang of guileless Celes- tials, and we prophesy an instant and amazing conversion to commonsense and the But in Hongkong and Shanghai this is quite well understood. It is only the griffins who lisp these sentimental objec- tions, and they soon grow out of it. There is no need to labour the point that pedagogic methods are needed in the interest of law and order. Shanghai's experience is not unique. As it happens, the Hon. Mr. KESWICK was as much at sea with regard to the object of the Bill as he was in his reference to "one of the morning papers." It was not to abolish the stocks at all, but to use them more discreetly. The school master who habituates his boys to a daily flourishing of the cane deprives himself of a useful deterrent. The thing by familiarity loses its terrors; and it was felt that the reckless imposition of the stocks for petty offences was robbing the apparatus of its wholesome significance. A poor coolie who causes what an intelligent policeman is pleased to regard as an obstruction is not a wicked It
person. He has no business in the stocks. Even a Chinaman who dares to hawk goods without first getting a licence deserve is not sufficiently depraved to that ignominy. There is not the least fear that this Bill will encourage criminals, or we would hasten to decry it. Insteal, even at the risk of falling under sus picions of being "controlled" by somebody or other we have pleasure in recording approval of it. Seriously, we trust that the Hon. Mr. KESWICK has not set a fashion by his opening remark in the Legislative Council. While not very serious in itself, being badly aimed, it reminds
of the race commits us to more than an expensive post-office at Tientsin. commits us to a good deal of legislative humbug and injustice. Still, life is not a matter of rhetoric, of logic, all the time, and the Chinese who oppose this mode of punishment on the score of its unfair dis. crimination are like the young gentlemen in KIPLING'S “Stalky & Co." They have to be shown the uses of a little flagrant injustice; to understand that a machiavel. lian latitude is imperative in most cases. We certainly would not let the prestige of the race prevent us from putting some white beachcombers in the stocks. Hongkong would have been a cleaner place if that had been possible in the past. Shanghai is a alave to the idea of racial prestige, giving it, that is to say, exaggerated importance. The northern port was recently scandalised because a Russian drunkard was ignored by his Consul, and allowed to face the ignominy of trial at the Mixed Court. There Chinese might gaze upon a sacrosanct white man, actually in the dock and charged with insobriety. What a blow to the prestige of the pallid epidermis !
But it seems to us that as the man hal been rolling about the public street before be was arrested and charged, that prestige was already sufficiently chipped and bulged to stand one more dent. If anything, the prestige must have gained a little by the public demonstration that the white man's justice is even-handed. In Hongkong it appears that some Chinese have doubts of its even-handedness. The Hon. Dr. Ho KAI tells us that a great deal of the opposition to this mode of punishment (the stocks) is due to the fact that the Chinese have noticed all white offenders are exempt therefrom. Their suspicion is pardonable; we have no excuse to offer; we regret that our ouly argument in favour of the policy is one of expediency. It would be hypo. critical to claim that it is fair, or just. But that most excellent Head-master of KIPLING's old school was wise enough to know that there are occasions when flagrant injustice is necessary and not immoral The parallel appeals to us as being worth insisting upon. The Chinese law breaker, even in a British Colony, does not wear the toga virilis. He is on a par with the schoolboy, for whom long experience has shown that the whipping block and the birch are best. There be sentimentalists who deplore the brutality of corporal punishment, and their inexperienced cackle in the newspapers has unfortunately been taken far too seriously from time to time.
that we us
have to trust
to His Ex-
cellency the GOVERNOR to protect the Press and others against unparliamentary imputations. We always give hon. members credit for honest intention and good faith, and we expect reciprocity.
GERMANY AND THE HAGUE CONG ESS.
[October 19, 1907.
means completed her list of intended con- quests, which she hopes to accomplish with- Jut the necessity of war; fortune has been so far on her side, and things have fallen to her almost in a natural way; and such is the used up condition of the Continent generally, that to her statesmen it seems not at all improbable that there are more such wind- falls in store. She, of course, does not like to talk of these things; an untowar word might light a spark amidst the unheeded rubbish lying around, and the whole of her uncompleted edifice might be consumed in even less time than it has taken to erect. There are thus very tangible ressous both why Germany should like peace, and also why she should not like to have to discuss But there are other reasons why the it. mention of war should be distasteful. As the case stands Germany has the credit of being the only nation in Europe thoroughly prepared for war; how thoroughly is a moot point, and as long as this remains an un- known quantity its moral effect is practically as effective as w uld be an, even successful, campaign.
This has been curiously illus trated during the whole progress of the Moroccan negotiations, wherein, however, she has had the address never to utter a word that could be construed into a threa'. With the other continental nations the discussion of peace has sounded as a mere hollow mockery, a thing which they felt had no- thing to do with them. The whole European system had arrived at a stage of unstable equilibrium; the growth of the German Empire had so overweighted the remainder. that unless the counterpoise were shifted a general collapse of the entire fabric wa, bound to occur in the near future. This was the prospect that one and all had to face, but from which all shrank, and feared to mutter the word even in their inmost
hearts, lest, like Midas's ears, the secret would out.
view
This is, of course, the unconscious cause which has made all the Powers so desirous of procuring allies, yet which seems with nearly all to have paralysed their best efforts at working together efficiently. The most conspicuous instance of this is France and England. The two countries had been (Daily Press, October 14th.) long coming together; they hat had old There is no doubt that the Congress at the sores to forget, which being close neighbours, Hague has proved a disappointment, both and thrown constantly in contact, would for those who had their axes to grind as for now and then crop up. Still both were those who came with some sort of a distant glad when the time came to cordially wel- hope that the Congress would in some way
come an understanding. The understand- ameliorate the present condition of tensioning is good enough in time of peace; both prevailing in Europe. Probably a good have found out that their little bickerings part of this is to be accounted for by the did not from a social or financial point of persistence with which the faddists "kept impressing ou an unsympathetic audience their peculiar views; and by this means rendered those whose main object was simple obstruction more powerful when they sought to block the way to all progress. In the face of the uncertainty as to what a single day may bring forth in the present unstable condition of Europe, it was from the first unlikely, whatever its own feelings on the subject should be, that any one Power would so far show its hand as to take part in any discussion having peace as a mere abstraction in view. All are sincerely desirous of peace; and there is no reason to disbelieve the German Chancellor when he affirms that in the continuance of peace rests in a great measure the prosperity of Germany. Peace has been very favourable to Germany. It has done for her what few other nations in history have to record; ani has enabled her without bloodshed to build up a greater European Empire than with the assistance of blody and wasteful wars has fallen to the lot of any other Power in ancient or modern times. She has by no
pay. Like Jack Spratt and bis wick they are mutually complementary. Jafe, Spratt could eat no fat, his wife would have no lean; so France and England working together have found too that they could lick the platter clean, and have no leavings. But unfortunately both have neglected to take thought for the future, and piled up no reserve for an evil day. 3oth have, in fact, been living in their past, and in a thoughtless rush for democracy have been forgetting all its lessons, and permitting that discipline of thought and action, which alone can make nations or individuals greats to lapse. Both have lost the power of organisation for self defence; and when the emergency comes, as come it will, when the entire Continent is up in arms, Franceand England will only count as so many in- dividual heads in & mob, each intent on its own petty aim, and in consequence all the weaker as the heads eum up the greater number.
This is the true cause underlying the cynical indifference with which Germany regarded all efforts to introduce any practi-